Well, they read the platform of the demonstration, the "Let's Stop the War" platform, which all the sponsoring bodies signed onto. It consisted of a virulent anti-American harangue spoken by the actress Carme Sansa, which basically accused America and Americans of wanting Iraqi babies to die so we could get more oil. It was foul and it stank of hate. It demanded not only an American climbdown before the Franco-German position, which I could almost understand, but demanded the lifting of the embargo on Iraq, the "national unification of the Kurdish people", the enforcement of the UN resolutions against Israel, and, like, justice and shit for the Palestinian people. All these demands were spiced with violently anti-American rhetoric reminiscent of the best days of the Moscow Party line, which a lot of these people followed at one time or another. In fact, the point of the demonstration wasn't to protest against war, it was to protest against America.

And the crowd shouted along and applauded. Hundreds and thousands of them. I was repulsed. I am repulsed. It was sickening. I have never seen so much anti-Americanism concentrated in one place. Among the signs held up were "Aznar lameculos de Bush" (Aznar, Bush's ass-licker), "No somos el ojete de Bush" (We aren't Bush's asshole), and "Fuck Bush" (original English, quite large). All the politicians participated in the march and said how wonderful it was that all the people were marching together for peace and that this just proved what wonderful people Catalans are. Socialist Mayor Joan Clos and Communist leader Joan Saura were rather outspoken in their America-bashing, while the others refrained from naming names and spouted a bit of guff about peace. Wise old fox Jordi Pujol didn't show up, but Artur Mas and Joan Rigol from the conservative-yet-anti-American Convergence and Union party did. So did Pasqual Maragall.

There's no doubt, the verdict of the people of Barcelona is overwhelming. They don't like us. Not one bit. They came out and told us so, in public, loud and clear. It's a beautiful city, but keep today in mind when planning your future vacations.

Pedro Almodóvar is going to read the speech at the demo in Madrid. Let's see what he has to say, and then see how it compares with what he says when he shows up at the Academy Awards ceremony. By the way, the movie to boycott is "Hable con ella" (Talk to Her). Pedro Almódovar's hard to miss. He's the guy who can't speak English who made a fool of himself at the Academy Awards a couple of years ago when he won something. He is rather flamboyant. He has a big poofy hairdo.